Method and means making and conveying an extruded sausage strand

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for producing and processing a strand of sausage or foodstuff has a sausage producing machine which produces a linked strand of sausage for deposit of loops of the strand on the hooks of a continuous conveyor. The conveyor picks up the loops of the strand at a loading station immediately adjacent the discharge end of the machine, and conveys the loops to a processing station for smoking or the like. The conveyor then moves the loops to an unloading station for removal of the strand from the conveyor, whereupon the conveyor downstream of the unloading station returns to the loading station to pick up additional product. A conveyor take-up mechanism is located immediately downstream from the loading station to permit the conveyor to cease movement at the loading station (while the casing on the machine is being replenished) while the conveyor can continue movement in the processing area. Sensors and controls interconnect the machine and the conveyor to coordinate the operational functions of each. A method of producing and processing a strand of sausage or foodstuff involves producing a linked strand of material, depositing linked loops thereof on the hooks of a moving conveyor, controlling the coordinated activity of the production of the product with the movement of the conveyor; moving the product to and through a processing station, and thence to an unloading station, while periodically stopping the movement of the conveyor and the operation of the machine while continuing the movement of the conveyor through the processing area.

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 09/182,533 filedOct. 29, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,636.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Strands of sausage are made on high speed machines by extruding meatemulsion into an elongated casing. The meat-filled casing is thentwisted to create sausage links. The linked strand is discharged fromthe sausage making machine. Loops of sausage comprising a plurality oflinks are deposited on moving hooks of a conveyor. The ultimate lengthof a given strand is determined by the length of the casing beingfilled. When a casing has been filled, the sausage-making machine isstopped; the casing is tied off or closed to prevent any meat emulsionfrom exiting the rearmost end of the casing; a new casing is then placedin position to be filled; the machine is restarted, and the cyclerepeats itself.

The linked and looped sausage strand or strands are periodically removedfrom the conveyor or otherwise transported to a food processing stationwhich normally cooks, smokes or treats the sausage strand beforepackaging for final delivery to the consumer.

With sausage machines creating up to 30,000 sausages per hour, thehandling of the production of even a single machine is a significanttask. Any inefficiency in the process translates into increased cost ofproduction which is reflected in the price of the products to theconsumer.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a methodand apparatus for producing and processing a strand of sausage or otherfoodstuff which is both economical and highly efficient.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatusfor producing and processing a strand of sausage or other foodstuffwhich is substantially continuous and which will minimize anyinterruptions in either the production of the strand or its subsequentprocessing.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method andapparatus for producing and processing a strand of sausage which willclosely coordinate the production and processing phases of theoperation.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method andapparatus for producing and processing a strand of sausage which willallow the processing phase of the operation to continue even though theproduction phase is momentarily interrupted to replace casings.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An apparatus for producing and processing a strand of sausage orfoodstuff has a sausage producing machine which produces a linked strandof sausage for deposit of loops of the strand on the hooks of acontinuous conveyor. The conveyor picks up the loops of the strand at aloading station immediately adjacent the discharge end of the machine,and conveys the loops to a processing station for smoking or the like.The conveyor then moves the loops to an unloading station for removal ofthe strand from the conveyor, whereupon the conveyor downstream of theunloading station returns to the loading station to pick up additionalproduct.

A conveyor take-up mechanism is located immediately downstream from theloading station to permit the conveyor to cease movement at the loadingstation (while the casing on the machine is being replenished) while theconveyor can continue movement in the processing area.

Sensors and controls interconnect the machine and the conveyor tocoordinate the operational functions of each.

A method of producing and processing a strand of sausage or foodstuffinvolves producing a linked strand of material, depositing linked loopsthereof on the hooks of a moving conveyor, controlling the coordinatedactivity of the production of the product with the movement of theconveyor; moving the product to and through a processing station, andthence to an unloading station, while periodically stopping the movementof the conveyor and the operation of the machine while continuing themovement of the conveyor through the processing area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the device of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a large scale perspective view of the loading station of theconveyor as viewed generally from the location of the sausage makingmachine;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view taken from an opposite direction from thatseen in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged scale elevational view of the hook and chainportion of the conveyor;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5—5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a reduced scale view similar to that of FIG. 5 showing theangular position of a conveyor hook at the loading station;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to that of FIGS. 5 and 6 but shows the conveyorchain in a travel mode after a loop of sausages has been picked up fromthe loading station;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIGS. 6 and 7 but shows the chain and hookin a position at the unloading station just after a loop of sausages hasdeparted the conveyor;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged scale side elevational view of a conveyor hookused in this invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing the interfaced relationship betweenthe sausage making machine and the conveyor;

FIG. 11 is an elevational view taken on line 11—11 of FIG. 1 showing theunloading station;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged scale elevational view as seen on line 12—12 ofFIG. 11; and

FIG. 13 is an enlarged scale elevational view of the portion outlined bythe dotted lines 13—13 on FIG. 11.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to FIG. 1, a conventional sausage making machine 10 hasan operator's platform 11 and is positioned upstream of a conveyor 52. Afood processing station 14 which will be discussed hereafter is locateddownstream of the machine 10 and immediately downstream from a loadingstation 16. An unloading station 18 is located immediately downstream ofthe food processing station 14. A conveyor chain take up assembly 20 islocated immediately downstream of the loading station 16.

Machine 10 has a conventional linker 22 which discharges a linkedproduct through a discharge horn 24 in the form of a sausage strand 26(FIG. 10). The discharge horn is preferably rotatable, but can bestationary, and is adapted to create sausage loops 28 comprised ofseveral linked sausage elements produced from linker 22. The dischargehorn 24 is best shown in FIG. 10.

A support frame 30 (FIGS. 2, 3 and 11) slidably supports subframe 32(FIGS. 2 and 3). An elongated cylindrical rail 34 is supported on frame30 upon cross members 35. A rectangular rail 36 is spaced from butparallel to rail 34 and is also supported by cross member 35. Thesubframe 32 has wheels 37 (FIG. 3) which movably support the subframe onrails 34 and 36. A pair of parallel struts 88 on subframe 32 extendbetween end members 40 which are supported on four vertical posts 42(FIGS. 2 and 3).

A horizontal mounting plate 44 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is mounted on frame 30. Adiagonal extending arm 46 extends from a lower portion of frame 30outwardly towards loading station 16 (FIG. 3) and supports gear box 48.A loading motor 50 is also supported by frame member 46 at the loadingstation.

An elongated continuous chain conveyor 52 (FIGS. 4 and 5), includes asprocket chain 54 comprised of rotatable chain links 56, chain bushings58, and U-shaped link elements 60. With reference to FIG. 5, ahorizontal shaft 62 extends through link element 60 to support wheel 64on the opposite ends thereof. Wheels 64 run on the horizontal legportions of opposite L-shaped tracks 65. A hook support 66 rotatablysupports bearing 68 which pivotally supports hooks 70 which arethereupon adapted to pivot laterally with respect to the elongated axisof the chain 52. Hooks 70 (FIG. 9) are comprised of a vertical shank 72which has a J-hook portion 74 at its bottom end and a horizontal bar 76at its upper end.

As shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 10, chain conveyor 52 has an outgoing segment78 and a return segment 80 with respect to the loading station 16. Withreference to FIG. 10, a sprocket 82 supported on frame 30 at loadingstation 16 has a loading position 84 (FIG. 10). Sprockets 86 and 88 aremounted on frame 30 in spaced relation to sprocket 82 so as to receivethe outgoing segment 78 and the return segment 80 of chain 52,respectively. Sprockets 86 and 88 are rotatably mounted on frame 30, bitare in a fixed position and do not move in a lateral direction.

Movable sprockets 90 and 92 are rotatably mounted on subframe 32. A gearbox 94 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is mounted on mounting plate 44 and isoperatively connected to sprocket 88. Master motor 96 is operativelyconnected to gear box 94. Thus, motor 96, gear box 94, and sprocket 88supply the drive power for chain conveyor 52. A plurality of slavemotors 96A (FIG. 12) to motor 96 can be connected to conveyor 52 tolimit the tension on chain 54.

The food processing station 14 shown in FIG. 1 is comprised of aplurality of conventional food processing units 98, 100, 102 and 104. Aplurality of sprockets are used in the units 98-104 to move the chainconveyor 52 through each of these food processing units. These unitsinclude such conventional operation as smoke houses, and the like.

It is necessary that the operation of the sausage making machine 10 becoordinated with the operation of the conveyor 52. With reference toFIG. 10, a rotational drive mechanism 106 is associated with dischargehorn 24 to rotate the same in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG.10 as the strand product 26 is being produced by the machine isdischarged therefrom. The mechanism 106 is operationally connected toservo motor 108 with gear reducer 110 being located therebetween. Aservo amplifier 112 is connected to the servo motor 108. The servoamplifier 112 is in communication by line 114 to counter/converter 116.A proximity switch 118 is located on frame 30 to sense the presence ofloops of sausage 28 (or hooks 70) on the conveyor 52. Switch 118 isconnected by line 120 to the counter/converter 116. Variable frequencydrive 122 is operationally connected to AC motor 50. The AC motor 50 isoperationally connected to gear reducer 126 which is operationallyconnected by convenient means to sprocket 82 at the loading station 16of the conveyor 52. A PLC 128 is connected by line 130 to the variablefrequency drive 122.

The unloading station 18 is specifically illustrated in FIGS. 11, 12 and13. With reference to FIGS. 12 and 13, a vertically disposed plate 132is supported from frame 30 by arms 134. A horizontally disposed loopknock-off L-shaped bar 136 having an outwardly extending portion 137 ismounted to plate 132 by support bolts 138. A J-shaped support bracket140 is also supported by plate 132 in any convenient means. Bracket 140in turn supports hook-tilting bar 142 (FIGS. 12 and 13) and serves totilt the hooks 70 inwardly towards frame 30 shown by the dotted lines inFIG. 12 and to a position shown by the solid lines in FIG. 13. Bar 142has an outwardly diagonally extending portion 144 on its free end asbest shown in FIG. 13. Bar 145 will engage and pivot hooks 70 back totheir normal vertical position if they have not returned to thatposition by the effects of gravity.

A conveyor table is located below the unloading station 16 and has aninclined ramp 148 on the upstream end thereof to engage the incomingloops 28 to move them to the inclined position shown best in FIG. 11.

As shown in FIG. 6, a cam 152 is located at the loading station 16 tocause the oncoming hooks 70 to tilt outwardly and rearwardly to theposition shown in FIG. 6 to better present the hook for receiving theoncoming sausage strand 26 to form loops 28. The forming of loops froman oncoming sausage strand is conventional in the art, but the tiltingof the hooks 70 in the manner shown in FIG. 6 greatly facilitates thisprocess.

As is well understood in the industry, the sausage making machine 10produces a sausage strand 26 that is encased within a telescopicallycompressed casing material which has an extended length of up to 30 feetor so. When a first length of casing material is filled, it is necessaryto stop the operation of the sausage machine, tie off the filled casingmaterial, and provide a second length of casing material so that themachine can commence operation again. This ordinarily can beaccomplished in a very few seconds by an experienced operator. Thus, themachine 10 and the conveyor 52 need to be carefully coordinated toenhance this process.

At the same time, it is not desirable to have the chain conveyor 52stopped downstream of the loading station 16 when the loading station 16has been stopped to permit a new casing to be placed in operation in thesausage making machine. To achieve these objectives, the control systemset forth in FIG. 10 and described heretofore facilitates thecoordination of the sausage making machine 10 and the conveyor 52, andalso permits the conveyor 52 to continue taking sausage loops 28 throughthe food processing station 14 even though the operation at the loadingstation 16 has been briefly interrupted.

The sausage making machine 10 communicates with the conveyor 52 throughthe control system set forth in FIG. 10. Variations of speed and timecan be imposed in the interface between these two components. Thecombination of the looper horn 24, servo motor 50 and servo amplifier112 along with gear reducer 110 are driven at a specified velocitydetermined by a predetermined ratio of the speed of linker or linkerchain 22. Since the rotation of the looper 24 is a servo driven system,there is a feedback from the driven servo motor 108 to the driving servoamplifier 112. The information being delivered back to the servoamplifier 112 is a dual square wave (quadrature) pulse train. The pulsetrain, because of the gear reduction, is typically 24,000 pulses perevery revolution of the looper 24. Typically, there is an option in theservo amplifier 112 to generate a replica of the feedback pulse trainand a further option to divide it by a constant, which is preferred tohave a value of 8. This would result of an output of 3,000 pulses perrevolution of the looper 24.

The counter/converter 116 receives pulses from the servo amplifier 110and starts to send a speed command to the variable frequency drive 122.This speed command could be 0-10 vdc, 4-20 mA, or other such forms. Themagnitude of the speed command and its acceleration and deceleration aredriven by the incoming pulse frequency. The speed command is interpretedby the variable frequency drive 122 as a specific output frequency whichin turn determines the RPM of the AC motor 52, which thereuponinfluences through the gear reducer 16 the speed of the conveyor hooks70.

The conveyor chain 52 and the related hook system also has a feedbacksource. The proximity switch 118 which detects the presence of a hook,transmits a pulse to the counter/converter 116 which compares the countof pulses of the incoming pulse train to the frequency of the proximityswitch 118 and makes some adjustments to the speed command to thevariable frequency drive 122. The foregoing typifies the normalproduction operation.

When the operation of the sausage machine 10 is interrupted to eitherchange a casing or when the operator goes on break, the variablefrequency drive interrupts the operation of motor 50 so that a hook 70stops at the 9:00 o'clock position of sprocket 82, as viewed in FIG. 10so that when operation of the sausage machine 10 is resumed, a hook isimmediately in place to commence the grasping of the oncoming sausagestrand 26 whereupon a first loop 28 can be commenced without delay.Further, when the operation of the machine 10 has been interrupted, themotor 50 is not moving the outgoing segment 78 or the incoming segment80 of chain 54. However, master motor 96 of the conveyor 52 continues toprovide operational power to the chain 54 so that the previously loadedsausage loops 28 move through the food processing station 14 and theunloading station 18. The conveyor chain take-up assembly 20 (sometimescalled a “buffer”) comes into play at that point wherein the subframe 32moves in an upward direction on the rails 34 and 36. (FIG. 10). Thedimensions of the subframe 32 are such, and the drive speed of themaster motor 36 is such, that the conveyor chain take-up assembly 20will require sufficient time to move to its take-up position so that anew sausage casing can be installed on machine 10 to permit machine 10to restart its operation. An override circuit in the PLC 128 willoverride master motor 96 in the event that the machine 10, and motor 50,do not commence to operate before the conveyor chain take-up assemblyhas reached its maximum displacement. The conveyor chain take-upassembly 20 which forms a part of this invention is not novel per se,but its application to this environment is deemed to be novel. Sensor129 communicates with PLC 128 by line 129A to monitor the movement ofchain take-up assembly 20 and the lateral position thereof.

As previously indicated, the hooks 70 are tilted outwardly by cam 152 asthey arrive at and pass the 9:00 o'clock position of sprocket 82 at theloading station 16. This enhances the grasping of the strand 26 by thehook and facilitates the formation of loops 28. It should also be notedthat the movement of hooks 70 at loading station 16 do not intersect therotation of the looper horn 24 to insure that there is never anymechanical interference between the hooks and the looper horn. Also, thePLC 128 will always cause a hook 70 to stop at the 9:00 o'clock positionof sprocket 82 whenever motor 50 ceases to provide power so as toexpedite the resumption of loop making as soon as machine 10 becomesoperative again.

At the unloading station 18, as best shown in FIGS. 11, 12 and 13, ithas been discovered that the attitude of the loops 28 for removalpurposes from the hooks 70 is best accomplished by inducing the loops tothe inclined position shown in FIG. 11 as the bottoms of the loopsengage the ramp 148. As the inclined loops reach the level of the top oftable or conveyor 146, the hooks 70 are engaged by the outwarddiagonally extending portion 144 of bar 142 which causes the hooks topivot inwardly towards frame 30. (See the dotted lines of numeral 70 inFIG. 12.) Immediately thereafter, the loops themselves are moved intoengagement with the abutting outwardly extending portion 137 (FIG. 13)of loop knock-off bar 136 which easily forces the loop out of engagementwith the lower J-hook portion 74 of the hook.

It should be understood that the system of FIG. 1 can have superimposedupon itself another set of components directly above the components ofFIG. 1 wherein a “two story” system could be simultaneously operated.Similarly, the system of FIG. 1 could have two loading and/or unloadingstations to increase the capacity of the system. This would require somealternate spacing of groups of loops 28 on the conveyor 52.

From the foregoing, it is seen that sausage strands can be easily andquickly produced by conventional sausage making machines 10, and then beprovided in a very efficient way to an adjacent conveyor for a quick andefficient delivery to a food processing station, and thence to anunloading station. The operation of the sausage making machine and theconveyor are closely coordinated to maximize efficiency, and thisefficiency is enhanced by permitting the conveyor to move loops ofsausage through the food processing station while the loading station ismomentarily out of operation while the sausage machine is beingresupplied with sausage casing. It is therefore seen that this inventionwill achieve at least all of its stated objectives.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing an elongated strand offood material, comprising, producing an elongated food strand,delivering the strand to a loading station of a moving conveyor, loadingthe strand on the conveyor, transforming the strand into a series ofloops as it is loaded on the conveyor, extending and moving the conveyorthrough a food processing station, periodically interrupting thedelivery of the strand to the loading station, stopping the movement ofthe conveyor at the loading station when the delivery of the strand isinterrupted, while continuing to move the conveyor through the foodprocessing station, and providing hooks to the conveyor, and locating ahook in a position at the loading station to immediately receive the endof a new strand that is delivered to the loading station when themovement of the conveyor at the loading station is interrupted.
 2. Amethod of processing an elongated strand of food material, comprising,producing an elongated food strand for discharge through a horn of astrand making machine, delivering the strand to a loading station of amoving conveyor, loading the strand on the conveyor, transforming thestrand into a series of loops as it is loaded on the conveyor, extendingand moving the conveyor to a discharge station, periodicallyinterrupting the delivery of the strand to the loading station, stoppingthe movement of the conveyor at the loading station when the delivery ofthe strand is interrupted, while continuing to move the conveyor throughthe food processing station.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the hornis rotating.
 4. The method of claim 3 comprising the steps of imposing aconveyor take-up assembly between the loading station and the dischargestation.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the take-up assembly iselectronically monitored to permit compensatory action to be made to theoperating power delivered to the machine and to the conveyor when thevelocity of movement of the conveyor varies between the velocity of theloading station and the velocity downstream therefrom.
 6. A method ofcreating and processing an elongated sausage strand, comprising,extruding a meat emulsion into an elongated hollow casing to create anelongated strand, forming the strand into a plurality of links, andthereupon forming the strand into a plurality of loops comprised of aplurality of links, placing said loops on the hooks of an elongatedcontinuous moving conveyor at a loading station, moving the loops bymoving the conveyor through a food processing station to prepare thestrand for edible consumption, moving the loops to an unloading stationand removing the loops from the conveyor at the unloading station, andreturning the conveyor to the loading station for a further supply ofstrand formed into loops.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the conveyoris periodically made motionless at the loading station and the extrusionof meat emulsion into the casing is interrupted to permit a secondcasing to be positioned for receiving extruded meat emulsion, while atthe same time causing the portion of the conveyor in the food processingstation to continue move.
 8. The method of claim 5 wherein the extrusionof the meat emulsion is controlled so as to be operative only when theconveyor is motionless at the loading station.
 9. The method of claim 7wherein the speed of the conveyor is controlled by the rate of extrusionof meat emulsion so that the loops of sausage will be uniformly placedin the conveyor.